…finally. On disk since I don’t do broadcast (damn commercials). I’m about halfway through the first season and I have to wonder: Is it going to be satisfying to slog through five seasons or is it going to wind up with a lot of narrative dead-ends like Lost ultimately did? I mean after all, Adam Horowitz is co-creator and has written about a quarter of the episodes.
From the pacing so far, it’s looking like a mini-series with the main arc being resolved by the end of season one but it’s been going on for five seasons now, with a sixth underway and AFAIK no signs of stopping. I’m wondering how far down the rabbit hole it goes.
It was cool seeing Judy Hopps in the flesh; I hadn’t seen anything with Ginnifer Goodwin in it before and I like the realworld names jibing up a bit with their fairyworld counterparts.
You are either going to like it or not. If you’ve seen a few episodes you already know if it’s your cup of tea. I will say that it does not leave narrative dead ends. Storylines are wrapped up and new ones start. At least as far as I’ve seen which I think was through season 4.
I’ve also watched through season 4, and this is correct, storylines are mostly wrapped up and new ones start. There are a few ongoing mysteries, or characters that you don’t see for a while who might pop back up, but it’s not a pile of mysteries that keeps growing bigger.
My bigger issue is that it does get a bit repetitive with the curses, and with some of the flashbacks that are unnecessary, but it’s an enjoyable silly show.
The first season was pretty damn good. The second season went off the rails and I stopped watching. The third season looked like it was all about merchandising Disney
Sort of. Unless things changed after season 2, they don’t leave mysteries like they did in LOST, but they do force the characters to fail to accomplish anything.
Want the girl? Okay, well just as you’re 99% of the way to getting her, she’s banished to a new location. Keep trying, champ!
Want to kill Bobo? Okay, well you killed him, but now he’s back from dead, even worse than ever. Keep trying, champ!
The show goes to great lengths to prevent actual resolution from ever occurring, though they might temporarily make it seem like it.
It’s fun, and I did enjoy it for a few seasons. It didn’t have the feeling, like LOST, that there was some real end goal. They do better at selling the idea that it’s all just a big adventure anyways. But, it was pretty clear that it was still the same people who did LOST, and there would never be any satisfying resolution to anything, so I decided to go to something else.
Also, they never continued Amy Acker’s relationship with Grumpy.
Some of the arcs are clunkier than others, but it’s fun to see Lost alum pop up. I’ve enjoyed the show, especially when it’s over the top campy, because it’s fun. And I would turn evil for the Evil Queen’s wardrobe. Dayum.
My advice is to keep watching. Each season has a different major story arc. The writers of the show have figured out ways of connecting disparate fairy tales in ways that you’ve never imagined.
It seems to be something of a trope for an evil female character to show a lot of cleavage. I’m not sure why.
I’ve just finished the episode where Dreamy changes to Grumpy and I see what you mean. The plotline where the curse is broken or at least the fairylanders find out about it is progressing at a rather desultory pace and the writers are showing new fairylanders’ stories, sometimes with tie-ins to the main characters’ threads.
I think it’s a really silly show, beautiful to look at at times, and as much fun as it is silly and sometimes beautifiul. It’s not as good as the first 2 seasons, but I still watch. I am deeply enamoured of Rumple/Gold. A 55 year old villain (?) with bad teeth floats my boat like none other, and I am hoping he and Belle live happily ever after. (You will find he has played two other characters within the show-one with Belle and one with Hook !)
I love this show and I’ve watched through the latest season. As someone else mentioned, it is an example of the old corporate tie-in. Also, like others have said, it doesn’t really leave you wondering about anything. All through the series, it’s dual nature is retained (current reality in Storybrook with flashbacks to the backstory from the Enchanted Forest). Live-action versions of numerous Disney characters from many of their cartoons make appearances all through the series (e.g. Peter Pan, Elsa from Frozen, etc.).
I’ve only seen a couple episodes myself, but my wife was binge-watching it on Netflix for a while. She gave up on it, saying, “it was just the same things happening over and over.”
My wife loves this show, and I like most of the episodes.
The things I like about it:
The weaving together of the various characters, particularly when a new character is introduced and it goes back and forth between flashback and present day, and you can try to guess from the clues which character it’s going to be.
The women are active characters with agency, rarely damsels in distress.
The thing I dislike about it is that many of the episodes seem like they’re padded out with far too much good characters having the same conflict with evil characters over and over, with silly resolutions that fall apart to rekindle those conflicts in the next episode.
The writers flirt with making the villains three dimensional, but when the going gets tough, they drop the pretense and fall back on evil for the sake of evil.
All the time displacement in the show makes me dizzy. Lots of moving parts. I sometimes lose where I’m at in the plot. Still, though, very enjoyable.
And as far as not quite resolving issues thing goes, it’s made very clear from the start, magic has a price..
So, to me anyway, a less than happy ending is to be expected.